Vannacci’s party edges ahead of Salvini’s Lega for first time, shaking up Italian politics

Vannacci left the Lega to found his own party. Futuro Nazionale, the new far-right party led by former army general Roberto Vannacci, has overtaken Matteo Salvini's Lega in voting intentions for the first time, according to a YouTrend poll for Sky TG24 published on Thursday.   The survey, carried out this week among 825 adults with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points, put Futuro Nazionale on 5.9 per cent, up 1.5 points since 29 May, against 5.8 per cent for the Lega, the party Vannacci left to found his own movement. Other parties Prime minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia remains the largest party by a wide margin, on 27.8 per cent, ahead of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) on 22.2 per cent, the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) on 12.1 per cent (down 1.4 points), the centre-right Forza Italia on 8.2 per cent and the left-wing Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra on 6.8 per cent.   The centrist Azione and Italia Viva parties trail on 3.1 and 2.1 per cent respectively, while just under a third of Italians remain undecided or say they would not vote. Alliance question Vannacci's own supporters are divided over whether Futuro Nazionale should join forces with the governing centre-right coalition, with 36 per cent in favour and 30 per cent opposed.   Fratelli d'Italia voters are considerably more receptive to the idea, with 56 per cent backing the party's inclusion, whereas supporters of the Lega, Forza Italia and Noi Moderati are far more split, with only minorities taking a clear position either way.   YouTrend's modelling suggests that bringing Futuro Nazionale into the coalition would lift the centre-right's combined total to 45.4 per cent, narrowing but not closing the gap with the centre-left bloc, projected at 46.4 per cent.   Image: Matteo Salvini, photo credit: Alessia Pierdomenico / Shutterstock.com